New perspectives on health disparities in breast cance...(important marker for limited access to h...),Health

Date:11/28/2007

important marker for limited access to healthcare, late stage disease, and worse outcomes, and the fact is that poor adults are more likely to be obese, said Dolly Quispe, M.D., hematology-oncology fellow at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center The goal here is to determine if there is a correlation of obesity and poverty with breast cancer recurrence, and to quantify it.

African-American patients in this study were 62 percent more likely to have limited economic means, 88 percent more likely to be overweight and obese, and 46 percent more likely to be pre-menopausal, the researchers found.

Breast cancer recurred in 69 patients, and after investigators adjusted for body weight, race, menopausal status, age at diagnosis and cancer stage, BMI at diagnosis remained a statistically significant predictor of cancer recurrence. According to Quispe, low social economic status was a marginally significant predictor of relapse after adjusting for other factors. We can see the relationship between poverty, obesity, and cancer recurrence in this study, Quispe said

Also of note is the finding of a high rate of cancer relapse in younger patients, says Sun, Many studies have found that obesity in postmenopausal women is a risk factor for breast cancer development, but those few that correlate excess body weight and cancer in premenopausal women have been mixed, Sun said.

The researchers say this kind of study was possible at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center because that health center provides medical care to a significant portion of poor patients in Louisiana, a state with a poverty rate of 20 percent.

This is a snapshot of breast cancer incidence in people without insurance, Quispe said. It tells us that interventions targeting weight control could potentially improve outcomes in breast cancer.

The study was funded by the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center at LSU Health Sciences Center.

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Contact: Greg Lester greg.lester@aacr.org 267-646-0554 American Association for Cancer Research Source:Eurekalert

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